From a non-patient's perspective.

demands on medicine, but also removes the incentive to tackle the causes of the problem, be they familial, social, or political. More recently, we find low libido in women labelled as a ‘dysfunction’ which needs tablets to ‘cure’ it. It’s ironic, too, that the government is mounting a campaign to get people off long-term sickness benefit while we doctors medicalise job stress and poor working conditions into ‘anxiety states’. At 81 I remain a non-patient. I don’t know my blood pressure, cholesterol level, prostate specific antigen, or whether I am depressed. But I am lucky to have good genes, a large garden and a loving wife who is a good cook. I know what — and who — does more for my health and wellbeing.